Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Holy smokes, life just stays crazy!! Sounds like you have had quit the eventful
week with finding out you are having Christmas at home and everything. As
we speak we are still trying to find a place to Skype because our dinner
doesn't have Skype and can't do Skype,....oh just found out Bishop will let us
Skype at his house, phew!! So from Missouri I will Skype you at 1pm so 11am your
time. Be ready at 11AM to see you favorite missionary (sorry Elder
Luening J
). Can't wait to see you all; I was actually freaking out the other day ‘cause
I was so excited!

Anyways things in Missouri have been CRAZY!! We had a HUGE ICE STORM roll in on
Saturday! We were able to go outside until about 3pm. After that we were locked
inside because we had freezing rain...we don't get much of that back home and
it is insane! Basically it rains mini hail and then turns everything into a
skating rink. On Sunday we were also locked inside...the fleet (all the mission
cars) were on lockdown, so no driving. Also church was cancelled because
Saturday was freezing rain and then overnight we had 3.5inches of snow and it
was covering the deadly ice. We were really bummed that we couldn't have
Christmas Sunday, but we were allowed by the Bishop to have Sacrament in our
homes. So the LeNeaves did a cute little Sacrament Meeting for us. He blessed
the water (in bottle caps) and blessed the bagel and then afterwards he had a
little script of a Primary Program. So, we all took turns reading the passages
from Luke 2 about Christ's birth and then sang songs in between. It was
awesome! Then the LeNeave's made us breakfast and we had snow cream (it is homemade
ice cream made from fresh snow outside). So we can literally say that "Our
snow cream is so fresh that the snow cream you eat today was in the sky
yesterday!"

Then we all went outside and
shoveled the driveway. The LeNeave's driveway is 3 times as wide as our
driveway back home. It took us an hour and a half to shovel, with two people shoveling
and Brother LeNeave using his blow torch to melt the 1/4 inch ice on the
driveway. After we finished shoveling, I decided we should try to scrape the
car...the 1/4 inch thick ice completely covered the whole car!! So after
trying to hack at it, with nothing happening and worrying that I was going to
break the windows, we went back inside. The remainder of the day we tried
calling investigators and making appointments, with little success. But the
LeNeave's had made Christmas treats earlier, so we went and caroled with some
of them to a few neighbours across the treacherous ice and snow. It was really
fun, then we helped them wrap Christmas gifts...they were kind of on a time
crunch! So all in all it was a great day of doing service!!

Today the Zone Leaders cleared us to use our cars, but told
us all the ice had to be off of all of the windows of the car. I let the car
run for 30 minutes before Sister Morris and I went outside...poor sister Morris
could only stand there and watch me as I hacked away at the ice because there
was only one pathetic Dollar Store scraper for us to use! I hacked at it for
about 10 minutes - my knuckles started bleeding and I realized it was
pointless, so we went back inside for about 10 minutes to warm our bodies,
since it was only 10F outside!! So we went in and I grabbed the super thick
gloves and put my Russian looking hat on and went back outside. By this point
our car had been running for 50 minutes. From that point it took me 40 minutes
to scrape the car and the ice was literally coming off in slabs of 1/4inch
thick ice, it was crazy. Sister Morris said, " You look
like you are making an ice sculpture!", seriously that ice was
chipping off piece by piece and flying in the air, so its a good thing I was
wearing glasses ‘cause it was my eye protection! I have never, ever, never,
never, experienced ice like this! It is crazy...never move to Missouri! And
this is supposed to be the mild part of the winter, oh my gosh! So just so you
know I would not have gone to that extreme effort of de-icing the car, except
for the fact that I had to e-mail you...bleeding knuckles and all proves my
love for you all, lol! When I get back home I will never complain about having
to scrape the car for 5 or 10 minutes ever again!

Well, I love you all and I hope you continue to have a great Christmas season
as we continue to ponder what Christ and His birth means to each of us. I am so
thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. Neil A Maxwell said, "There could
have been no atonement, except for the character of Christ". Yes Jesus
Christ was the Son of God, and yes, as such he had powers given to him that
enabled him to physically accomplish the atonement. However, he personally,
just like each of us had to learn love, forgiveness, compassion. He understood
the Father's will and aligned His will with God's in difficult times. In the
Bible Dictionary, under “prayer” reads something like: “prayer is the act
of the child aligning their will with the father." We see Christ, himself ,
in the Garden of Gethsemane when he went through his own agony called to God in
prayer, and was able to recognize God's will in all of it by saying, " not
my will, but thine be done". He turned away from the natural man, and
instead took hold of the divine nature within himself and performed the one
thing that allows and enables each of us to turn away
from our natural man and take hold of our own divine natures. I am so
thankful for our Heavenly Father who loved us enough to send us His
only Begotten Son, that through him we can repent, and truly
reach the potential God sees in all of us. We will not be stuck, unless
we ourselves allow ourselves to be so. I'm thankful for our Saviour who
loved each of us enough that He was willing to endure all things for our sakes.
Where would we be had it not been for our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry
Christmas!! I love you all and I can't wait to Skype in 2 days!!!!

Monday, December 16, 2013

First of all, Mom and Dad, thank-you so much for the
Christmas package! You are ridiculous! It was so funny to open up the box and
see a tree in there, a foam nativity, a painting kit, other little
toys and not just a ginger bread house kit... no, no. But
rather a gingerbread Village!! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Also thanks for all the advent
goodies like the fruit tea and Chrisstollen (spelled that one
wrong). You're the best! Also thanks for all the individually wrapped
advent treats! My companion wasn't sure whether to say thank-you or not, since
we're sure it will just continue to fatten us up, lol! I don't know how you had
the time to do it all, you are amazing! Thanks for the 5 CD's worth of
Christmas music. Jeremy went above and beyond the call of duty on that one, I
was like a 5 year old in the living room opening my package and playing German
Christmas songs, ha-ha!

Also please say thank-you to the Smee's, Kaylee Gibb and
Bremen for the letters and pictures! It was so nice to hear from them and to
receive their kind words of support. I miss everyone! Also please send a huge
thank-you to the Stoddarts for me. They sent me a toque, gloves and a beautiful
scarf! Seriously, it was gorgeous and I love it! It was so sweet of them to
think of me! It felt like Christmas came early!

This Last week was amazing! We got to go back to
Independence for an all day mission-wide conference! We got to drive an hour to
Independence with the other set of sisters and it just brought me back to the
good old YSA road tripping days. The conference was so much fun! The first
4 hours were about "Using Time Wisely", so we got a list of
suggestions of "Things to Do, When Appointments
Fall Through", which will certainly come in handy! Then we had
lunch and heard a bunch of Christmas musical numbers for the last 3 hours!
There were 300 missionaries in attendance, and we got to take a mission-wide
picture, which each of us will be receiving a copy of! I am so excited! My zone
did a musical number in which I performed a duet, it was pretty awesome...and
stressful just because we didn't know how it sounded, but people assured us we
sounded great, lol!

This week was full of miracles and some pretty crazy weather phenomena’s. On Friday
I went on exchanges with some sisters in Liberty and so I got to spend half the
day serving at the Historic Liberty Jail. However that morning when I woke up
and we went outside to walk up the inclined side walk to the Liberty Jail,
there was a thick sheet of ice on the pavement. We were experiencing the
effects of freezing rain. The pavement was like an ice rink! Sister Jorgenson
had some close calls, and she finally made it to the grass, and had to grab my
hand and pull me up because I just kept slipping down the side walk, lol! It
was pretty funny, ha-ha! Because of the weather President Keyes sent out a
mission-wide voicemail and told us we were house bound. No driving cars
and no going outside! By the time our shift at Liberty Jail ended we were
cleared to drive but were told a snow storm would be coming soon, so we decided
we should end exchanges early, otherwise there would be a possibility we would
be on exchanges the next day as well. The time I spent at Liberty Jail, I definitely
needed. It reminded me of how sacred visitor centers are and since only one
group came in during the whole 6 hours I was there, I got a lot of study time
in, and I focused my studies on adversity. I read a scripture in Hebrews 5:8-9,
"though he was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which he suffered; And
being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation...” It reminded
me that Christ also had his own trials and experiences which he had to suffer
and endure. Through those trials and moments of adversity, he was able to truly
take hold of the God-like Divine Nature within himself and therefore fulfill
his purpose, to become the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. It works the same
way with us!

On Sunday we had so many miracles! We really worked hard this week, but in our
number accountabilities it just didn't show. But I really felt proud of our
week. At Church on Sunday one of our investigators came to Church. He is in his
60's and his wife is a member. He is basically a "dry-Mormon", and
sister missionaries have worked with him for 10 months. He told us during Thanksgiving
that he just feels like he hasn't had that great big light bulb moment from the
spirit telling him "Yes, the Church is true!", which is why he told
us he isn't willing to get baptized. Well on Sunday, our Bishop and Ward
Mission Leader felt inspired to privately talk to him in their office, and
after talking to him and helping him recognize that he knows the

Church is true he committed to being baptized on
December 28th!

After Church was our missionary correlation meeting and our Ward Mission Leader
told us what happened and Sister Morris' jaw just dropped....she was so shocked
and we both knew it was a miracle! From day one when I got here, Sister Morris
told me that her biggest wish before she left the area was that Sam would get
baptized, and it is happening! So, not only is the Elder’s investigator, Melanie,
being baptized on December 28th, but so is Sam J We have to teach him 3
of the lessons in just two appointments though, because he is going to Arizona
on Sunday for a week. He mentioned to us that he doesn't believe Joseph Smith
was a prophet, but that he will gain that testimony as he continues to learn in
the Church after he is baptized. We know if we can help him recognize his
testimony in the Book of Mormon, we can help him recognize his testimony of
Joseph Smith. He was so funny. We talked to him on the phone yesterday and he
said "I bet you haven't had a more stressful investigator being baptized
than me!....have you ever had an investigator who was on date to be baptized
not get baptized?", he jokingly said. Sister Morris and I said no, and he
said, "Well, there's a first time for everything!". We told
him," No there's not, because when it feels right to be baptized, its
right!". We joked with him and told him if need be we would wrestle him
into the font, lol!

Anyways, over the last few weeks Sister Morris and I have
been praying for miracles and opportunities to teach, and we also found out on
Sunday that about 5 of our recent converts will be at our dinner appointment
tonight and they have asked us to teach them their third new member lesson.
That in itself was a miracle because they haven't been able to meet with us
since I have been here, so at least 4 weeks!

I feel so blessed! Things seem to be picking up here and we
feel so blessed for all the work that has somehow been pushed our way. We are
working with one less active family in particular and her non-member parents
seem to really like me. I think it’s
because I'm German. Her dad moved to Canada from Germany when he was 5 years
old and they have a lot of German traditions and have gone back to Germany
several times because he has a sister that still lives there. They are going to
be at church next week to watch their grandson pass the sacrament for the first
time and they want to have us over for dinner soon J So, we are hoping we
will have some great teaching opportunities with them soon and that they
have been truly prepared to hear the message of the gospel. Also,
another less active sister we have been working with just received a calling
last week, so she is officially active in the church!

We have been so blessed this week and I know it is due to a lot of prayers! Also,
I found out that two of my recent converts, Apo and Lesi are both going to the
temple this week for the first time to do baptisms. I'm hoping I
can go to the temple with them...if not I'm just glad that they are able
to take that step J Also, on Sunday the elders and sisters and I
are singing in sacrament meeting. We are planning on singing Silent Night and I
am doing the solo descant for the last verse and then I am giving a
15 minute talk, and Bishop is the other speaker...no pressure, lol! I can't
wait to skype with you all. Thanks Jeremy, for settting up a skype account for
me and I will let you all know next week specifics for times and
everything for skyping! Love you!

Wow, sounds like it has been a little chilly up in Canada....what is the
average temperature there in the winter? Well, we survived our no car week,
woohoo! Here in Kearney this last week it was an average 18F late afternoon,
and -4F at night....so between -8C during the day and then drops
to about -20C at night......Brrrr!

Last week we relied on the Lord a lot for miracles. We
only had two scheduled dinner appointments for the whole week and it was
also our week without the car. On Tuesday we spent about 4 hours tracting,
because we couldn't get rides out to our areas where all of our people are, but
we prayed that we would have miracles and we managed to find 3 new
investigators, so that was exciting. On Thursday we weren't able to get a ride
out of our tiny suburb, luckily we had weekly planning to do and then spontaneously
we got a call from a member who lived 30 minutes away invited us for dinner. We
explained to her our car situation and she said she would be more than happy to
drive into town to pick us up and then after dinner take us back home. She
was ridiculously nice, and then it turned out she was actually taking us out to
a nice little restaurant to eat!

Another day we were walking trying to find a street on our
map that showed it connected to a suburb we wanted to tract...turned out
the map was wrong and we were walking on the side of a busy highway. As we
were standing there a member happened to see us and pulled over and told
us that the street actually didn't exist and drove us where we needed to
go. Miracle! We also didn't have a dinner that night and we decided to
stop in at a members house to warm up after we had tracted in their
area for an hour. After finding out that we would be eating at home,
they told us to sit down and fed us. It was like an Alma and Amulek kind
of experience, where we were like Alma, wandering starving and cold and the
Macinkowitz's were Amulek letting us come in and feeding us and then asking if
there was anything else they could do for us. We have some great members in the
Ward who would honestly do anything for us, they are amazing!!

On Saturday we had a community service activity we were
able to help out with in Plattsburg. We manned the gingerbread house making
station for the kids that piled in from the community Christmas parade. It was
fun and the elders came too and they managed to find a new investigator
during the cleanup.

Also, on Saturday Sister Morris felt inspired to call one of
our investigators we haven't been able to get a hold of for a few weeks. She
ended up answering and we talked to her for an hour about coming to church and
how much that will help her. She promised to come to church. We even called her
Sunday morning and she said she was going to come...I guess she hadn't seen
what the weather conditions were like outside. Unfortunately it snowed and it
was a 30 minute drive and she was worried about the driving conditions, so she
ended up not coming.....I was sooooo sad!! Plus, it was only about a half an
inch of snow.

The Elders found a miracle investigator who they were able
to teach the restoration to on her doorstep and then set her on baptismal date
in that same encounter. Her name is M, She is 18 years old and our recent
convert Kate hit it off really well with her at the Ward Christmas
party, and then M. came to Church on Sunday and to the Christmas Devotional at
Bishop's house. The whole time Kate and Melanie were glued to each other’s
sides - it was great, and before the Christmas devotional a member invited
M. and Kate both over for dinner. Kate is such solid fellowship for M. and it
is exciting to see how fast they have already become best friends. On the way
home from the devotional I asked M. what
she wants to do after she graduates, she said she wants to go into education
and be a missionary. She asked us some questions about missionary service and
then she said she had already talked about it a bit with the elders. She is so
cool!!

Anyways, I'm really excited to go back and teach some of the
investigators we found last week and I'm SUPER excited for the Missionary Christmas
Conference happening on Wednesday J I'm kind of
freaking out because it is transfers next week and I'm pretty sure I'm going to
get a training call on Friday. But I really want to stay with Sister Morris one
more transfer. Can't wait to get my package and have Sister Morris open
it for me to dive in and get my Christmas music for me! Then I'll seal it
back up until Christmas time! I'm glad to hear from you all and that things
have been going well. Can't wait to Skype with you on Christmas. Can you send
me Auntie Kirsten's number just in case we have technical difficulties and the
Skype account username you will be using so I can add you when we go to Skype.
If we Skype in the morning what time is best for you and if we Skype in the
evening what time is best for you? You are 2 hours behind us. Just let me know
if there is a specific time that works best for you. Also can you have Jeremy
set up a Skype username and password for me.

Thanks!! Let me know about the times to Skype and I
can't wait to Skype soon!

Another week in Kearney has gone by, and I'm not going to lie it has been tough.
There is a lot of work to do in this Ward. The Elders, my companion and I are
trying to put our heads together to figure how we can help the Ward. I know,
like Dad said last week, that the Lord will guide us in the things we can help
with. It is just all in the Lord's time. Sister Morris and I are pretty
much best friend's though! It is awesome!

On the other hand, we had Kate's baptism on Saturday! It was
wonderful! She was so happy and she has such a sweet spirit. I love her so
much! Also, since the Christmas season has begun, we are now officially able to
listen to Christmas music and later today the Sisters and I are going to
decorate gingerbread houses. Also, I have decided to pick up in Jesus the
Christ where I last left off. I really want to focus my studies more around
Christ. So, I started reading "Chapter 7: Gabriel's annunciation of John
and Jesus Christ" in Jesus the Christ. I also started reading the New Testament
along with it. I love it! It is really helping me learn more about Jesus Christ
and the people surrounding his life. Also, since I just finished reading the
Book of Mormon again, reading the New Testament is showing me how much the Book
of Mormon really is another testament of Jesus Christ and how they really do go
hand in hand together. It is wonderful and I have been able to cross reference
the Bible and Book of Mormon through what I come across in the Bible and remember
reading recently in the Book of Mormon. It is helping me come closer to Jesus
Christ and see who he really was, as well as hopefully helping me become a
better scriptorian! J

Mom, thank-you for sending the Christmas package...what did
you send a baby elephant?! Ha-ha, I'm excited!

Dad, thanks so much for your e-mail! They always uplift and
inspire me. This week has been really hard, but you always remind me what a
great privilege I have to partake in this great work and that I should
never lose sight of that.

Jeremy, keep up the great work! I know that you are working
hard and that the service you are doing for others is really helping them more
than you realize.

Elder Luening, you looked a little cold in your picture and sounds like every
week is an adventure,! Keep having fun with all the Christmas celebrations in
Germany!

Kass, Zyanya told me you were sick this last week, so I hope you have been
feeling better. I hope you and Scott and Zynaya have been celebrating advent.
That is something I miss but I have been telling everyone about usual Christmas
traditions J
Makes me miss home this time of year, but Sister Morris and I have been having
fun together, especially dancing out to Christmas music, and doing our own ballet
renditions of the “Nut Cracker” and such this morning, lol!

Anyway, I love you all and remember to strive to emulate Christ especially
through this Christmas season. Reading through Matthew recently reminded me of
the character of Christ. In Matthew we read about Christ being baptized and
then right afterward fasting for 40 days and 40 nights to be uplifted
spiritually. Right after his fast, after which he is physically exhausted and
spiritually filled, Satan comes and tempts him. Just as we have our own
weeks filled with business we too have our own miracles and trials.
Yet in the midst of Christ's trials and temptations he remembers that John is
in Prison and sends angels to minister unto him. Just as you yourselves, in the
midst of craziness look past it all and do your best to uplift and strengthen others.
Thank-you for being great examples and for reminding me of what being
Christ-like really means. Turning outward, when the natural man would normally
turn inward.

I love you all, and hope you know that through all your sacrifices you are
truly being blessed. I pray that you will continue to feel my love and Christ's
love throughout this Christmas season.

Thanks for taking the time to write and tell me what has been going on in your
lives. Things in Kearney have been going well. It sure is cold here! The other
day Sister Morris and I were tracting in -8C weather!!! Brrrrrr!

It's been interesting out here in the country! The
other day we went to get the sisters who live in the basement of a member's
home and there was a deer gutted and strung up to bleed out,! It was pretty
nasty but we got some awesome pictures. Also there are about a million dead
possums on the side of the roads here and Sister Morris and I almost hit a hawk
that got startled by us as it was feeding on a dead possum. It jumped up,
startled by our car racing towards it on the highway going 55 miles an hour. It
started frantically flapping around in path our only about 4 feet off the
ground. I had to lay on the breaks and pray that we wouldn't hit it with our
windshield....we barely missed it. The ironic thing is the other day as we were
driving, we saw a dead hawk on the road and Sister Morris and I looked at each
other and said, "how do you hit a hawk?!"....Well now we know,
lol!!

Some more fun adventures this last week included Sister
Morris and I buying Christmas onesie pajama's together on P-day. It's pretty
awesome! Also, we tried making pumpkin waffles....they wouldn't cook because
they were too dense, so we resorted to trying to cook them in the microwave,
which sort of worked. Then we tried to make them into normal pancakes over the
stove, but that didn't work either, so we resorted to leftovers.

We did have a miracle last week. So last P-day a guy called us and said that he
wanted to meet with us. We never met him before and set up an appointment to
meet with him the next day. Sister Morris was a little “wierded out” and
skeptical, because you know things like this do not happen everyv day to
missionaries. Well we met with him the next day. His name is M. and he is 18
years old, and said he thought that learning about our church would help him
out a lot because he was having a hard time emotionally lately. So far we have
taught him the first two lessons, but we have realized he struggles
understanding what sets this Church apart from other churches because instead
of coming to our Church on Sunday, he went to his neighbour's church.....yeah,
we'll need to work with him some more, ha-ha!

Sister Morris and I have really
been focusing on less-active members this last week and have been trying to
figure out how we can make reactivation a greater focus in the Ward. President
Gordon B Hinckley said, “There is absolutely no point in doing missionary work
unless we hold onto the fruits of that effort. The two must be inseparable....Every
convert is a great and serious responsibility." When I read that in PMG,
it hit me that in this ward we need to help the members realize that our
converts and less-actives are not just numbers. They are precious children of
God who have made sacred covenants with God and are now held under greater
accountability. Their salvation depends on the decisions and actions they make
and the efforts and actions we take to reach out to help them, strengthen them
and fellowship them. I was also reading a talk from the Relief Society General
Conference that reminded me that, yes, there are standard promised blessings
God promises to all of us when we keep his commandments, but he also knows each
of us personally. He will bless us according to the things we personally know when
we keep our covenants. The covenants we make in this life are covenants that we
will continue to keep through the eternities. I love you all and pray that we
will be able to recognize how we can continue the work of salvation moving
forward and reach out to those who have wandered from the fold of God.

Guess What?!?! Transfer calls came and......I'M GOING FULL PROSELYTING!!!
That's right! I am leaving the Visitor Center and Independence 2nd Ward, and
heading out to Kearney (pronounced Car-knee) 3rd Ward. It is a big mix of
emotions. I didn't expect to be leaving this transfer since Sister Stobbe just
came here last transfer, but I guess the Lord felt differently. So I am still
on my winning streak of a new companion every transfer- 4 companions 4
transfers! CRAZY! Also, I know who my new companion, Sister Morris is, because
we served together at the Visitor Center my first transfer in Independence.
This will be her third transfer out full proselyting so I'm pretty sure I will
only be with her for one transfer and then get a new companion because she will
be due to come back to the Visitor Center. Anyways, I'm sad to leave all my
investigators.

We're not too sure what is going on with I; he has been cancelling a lot on us.
But we have been meeting with K. still, who has a masters in theology and
writing a dissertation on the Book of Mormon and Bible - AKA he is very smart
and extremely well versed in the scriptures. He joined Community of Christ last
year, but wants to know if this church is true. We have talked with him a lot
about recognizing the spirit and praying about specific questions, and using
his heart instead of logic, since he is so analytical. I'm excited to hear how
things go with him. Apo is still set to be baptized this Saturday, and
hopefully I will be there to give the opening prayer, if I am given permission
from President Keyes to leave my new area. Apo is so amazing! She has the
testimony of someone who was raised in the gospel her whole life. When we
ask her questions she teaches us the doctrine and how it applies to our lives!
She is just amazing and so prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel.
Miracle!! We have also been meeting with a lady who has breast cancer.

The other day Sister Stobbe and I were able to meet with my recent convert
Lesi. As we asked her how things were going I was amazed to hear that she has
been trying to share the gospel with family and that she has implemented Family
Home Evening, Family Prayer and Family Scripture Study into their homes.
She also said that the Holy Ghost has been telling her to go to the
temple to do baptisms. I am so thrilled! Also, she said her husband (who was
less-active and is working on becoming a worthy temple recommend holder) was
scheduled to work on Sundays by his boss, so she went to his work and talked to
his boss and asked that he have Sundays off. She knew the boss because he
was a family friend and she said after talking with him he agreed to give
her husband Sundays off. I hadn't been able to go and
actually visit Lesi this whole transfer until the other day. It made
me so happy to see that she is the driving force behind supporting
her husband in getting active when she herself is a recent convert. She is
amazing and I can't wait until they are able to be sealed as a family in
the temple next year. That is their goal J!

Also things with Sister Stobbe have been going incredibly well. We have
had so much companion unity the last couple weeks. In lessons we have really
been able to have the spirit and teach well. Also, when we go out tracting we
have been so unified and allowed the spirit to work though us. The other day we
were out tracting and decided to go see a sweet lady, J., that we ran
into, but said she didn't have time to talk and that we could come back
another time. It had been a few weeks, so we decided to go stop by her house to
see her. She was home and as we talked with her we found out she was Pentecostal
and she knew a little bit about the Church, but had heard some false
things about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. She also said she felt like
there was more truth out there that she hadn't found yet. She was extremely
polite and courteous, willing to listen to what we said. As we talked to her
about our purpose, and taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we
could see her heart start to soften even more. I felt impressed to show
her how the Book of Mormon really is another Testament of Jesus Christ. I gave
her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to read on her own 3 Nephi 11
which talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She accepted the invitiation.

I read her Moroni's promise and testified that the Holy
Ghost would witness to her of the truthfulness of what we were saying and of
the Book of Mormon. She then relayed to us some experiences she had had in her
own life of feeling the Holy Ghost. To my surprise after relaying to
us some of her experiences, she told us she couldn't learn more about our
Church and gave us back the Book of Mormon. She said she felt like she was on
the path where the Holy Ghost was leading her and that she hadn't been led a
different way yet. I seriously wanted to cry. She had the truth that she was
seeking right in her hands and just rejected it. Sister Stobbe and I bore
testimony of how our message would bless her life and how we knew it was true,
but her heart had hardened. She was still very sweet and courteous and
thanked us for caring about the welfare of her soul. Sister Stobbe asked
if we could leave her with a prayer, she told us we could. At the end of the
prayer, the lady told us she was very impressed that we ended our prayer
"in the name of Jesus Christ". We invited her to pray about what we
had shared with her and to know if learning more was the direction God wants
her to go. She said she would and that if she felt prompted to learn more about
our Church, that she would call us, so I left her with a mormon.org card with our number on it.

In that doorstep discussion Sister Stobbe and I had taught
with the greatest unity I have ever experienced. The spirit was so strong that
whole time and I was devastated that Janice had somehow rationalized her way
out of learning more about the gospel. However, I know that eventually she will
be led to the Church. She will realize that here is where the truth lies. I
pray that her heart will continue to soften and that she will pray and follow
the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I'm so thankful for the Spirit that Sister
Stobbe and I were able to have because it allowed the Spirit to testify of what
we were saying even up to the last couple words in a prayer, "in the name
of Jesus Christ, Amen".

I love this gospel and I am so thankful to know that this church is true; that
the fullness of the gospel is here on the earth. I have felt the peace and comfort
that has come from the Holy Ghost. I have felt the love that God has for me and
the rest of his children. I have felt the sadness he feels when His children
reject the gospel that will make them the most happy in the plan He has created
for them. I love my Saviour, Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know this gospel
is true and I know the Book of Mormon is true. It speaks truth to my heart
and the war chapters in Alma relate to the spiritual war that is waging
against us today. I'm thankful for the armor I am able to put on to withstand Satan,
as I study and apply the doctrines contained in the scriptures.

I love you all and hope you have a great
week. Also my P-day is officially changed to P-day!